Anthony Albanese says any legal regime should have proper safeguards to ensure the interests of dying people were properly protected.
Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP

The Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese has flagged his support for voluntary euthanasia, arguing the wishes of dying people should be respected.

Albanese told Sky News on Tuesday he had made his views known publicly 20 years ago during the parliamentary debate about a bill banning the ACT and the Northern Territory from legislating on the issue, and he remained a supporter of assisted dying.

The Labor frontbencher said he supported voluntary euthanasia because when someone was at the point of death, and they were prepared to make that decision, then the law needed to “respect their personal wishes”.

“I’m a supporter of voluntary euthanasia,” Albanese said, adding that any change to the law should always be the subject of a conscience vote, and any legal regime should have proper safeguards to ensure the interests of dying people were properly protected.

Denton has spent the past couple of years campaigning for an assisted dying regime. He argued in a speech late last year that assisted dying was already happening in Australia but no one knew to what extent, “or whether it’s being done well, or for the right reasons, or with the consent of patients – as they do overseas – because the absence of a law here means we have no guidelines, no reporting mechanisms and no system of review”.

“All we have is doctors doing what they believe is best, depending on their moral view of the universe,” the broadcaster said.

Earlier this year, members of a cross-party federal parliamentary working group also telegraphed their intention to bring forward a bill overturning the ban on voluntary euthanasia that was legislated in the Howard era courtesy of a private member’s bill brought forward by Kevin Andrews.

The cross-party bill was introduced in early March but it did not progress to the stage of substantive debate. The bill, which was co-sponsored by the Labor senator Katy Gallagher and the Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, lapsed when the parliament was prorogued.

It is not clear whether or not the bill will be reintroduced when the new parliament resumes later this month, but the issue is likely to come back on the political agenda given there is residual support for change across party lines.